Death by double entendre

Early this year Canadian history magazine The Beaver announced a rebranding effort that included a name change.

The upcoming April issue of the mag will be titled Canada’s History.

In a recent article, “How the Beaver lost its name,” Martin Patriquin, Quebec bureau chief at Maclean’s tells “the story of how the Canadian magazine solved its 90-year-old branding problem.”

He writes:

“It took nearly two years, several market research studies, a direct mail campaign and The Beaver’s 24 editorial and board members to come up with the more prosaic Canada’s History. Beaver staff and board members have tossed around the idea of changing the magazine’s name since at least the late 1970s. The issue took on new urgency with the advent of spam filters and, it seems, a growing mainstream awareness of the more explicit meaning of the term.”